A raft of high profile releases concludes this week in the En Primeur 2017 campaign, with most down on, or equal to, last year’s prices.
Chateau Talbot 2017 has been released at €37.20 per bottle ex-negociant, down 11.4% on last year (€42). At this price, it enters the market at around the same level as the current prices of the last six vintages.
Clinet 2017 has been released at €56 per bottle ex-negociant, a 22.2% decrease on the 2016 price of €72. This year’s vintage is entering the market at a premium of over 30% to the price suggested by Liv-ex fair value methodology. Liv-ex suggests that if this looks unattractive, buyers might consider undervalued vintages such as 2016 and 2012.
Domaine Chevalier has made two releases. Domaine Chevalier 2017 has been released at €42 per bottle ex-negociant, a 20.5% decrease on the 2016’s release price of €52.80, while Domaine Chevalier Blanc 2017, sees an opening price of €67.20 per bottle ex-negociant, a 3.4% decrease on the 2016 price of €69.60.
Duhart Milon 2017 has been released at €48 per bottle ex-negociant, a 13% decrease on the 2016 release price of €55. It enters the market at around the same level as other recent vintages.
Clerc Milon 2017 has been released at €50.40 per bottle ex-negociant, the same as the release price of the 2016 (€50.40). Despite average feedback from critics on this vintage, Liv-ex notes that this chateau has made positive returns for En Primeur buyers over the last 11 vintages, and that this Clerc Milon is the second cheapest vintage in the market. Furthermore, the Clerc Milon index is the best performing chateau index in the last twelve months, posting a gain of 28%. Over the same time period the market (Bordeaux 500) is up 6%.
Finally, Evangile 2017 has been released at €180 per bottle ex-negociant, the same release price as last year (€180). However, as Liv-ex highlights, this is a significant premium of over 100% to the price implied by Liv-ex’s Fair Value methodology. Even if Neal Martin does upgrade his score for the wine in bottle (currently 90-92), it would need to be around 98 points to justify the current price.
Other releases this week include: Malartic Lagraviere at €32.40, Clos du Marquis at €34.80 and Armaillac at €31.20.
